“I’m a model you know what I mean,
and I do my little turn on the catwalk.

“Yeah on the catwalk, on the catwalk
yeah I do my little turn on the catwalk.”

~ Right Said Fred

I’m writing from the Plantarium plant fashion show in Boskoop, The Netherlands. They don’t call it a plant fashion show, but it truly is a fashion show, all about plants.

This is where the new plants for 2011 are being debuted. Every new selection to come from the Netherlands, our horticultural Mecca for new plants, is displayed here – in high fashion.

I call it a fashion show because, if you’ve never been to a trade show for plants in Europe, you might not realize the glamor and color associated with exhibiting and marketing plants over here.

Europeans are certainly not afraid of color. Everything is so colorful. There’s never this much color at a trade show in the U.S.

Why are Americans afraid of color?

Imagine lime green walls and purple carpet. I always get the same comment about every booth I’ve ever set up. People say, “It sure is colorful”, as if that’s a bad thing. They believe it is. I think people are drawn to it.

The problem over here is everything is so colorful, that you need even more color to stand out.

I applaud the Plant Publicity Holland group, the organizers of this show, for the way they celebrate the plants as fashion accessories for your home and garden.

Of course, since we are in Holland, a few miles from the famous Alsmeer plant auctions that deliver cut flowers to most of the World, there’s also a lot of flower arranging and fun stuff being done with cut flowers as well as all of the fruits and flowers from the garden plants being displayed at the show.

Here’s a picture from the “Plant Glamour Show”, or the plant catwalk, where they hire professional models to wear and model the new plants being introduced for the next season.

It’s fun. Our trade shows are boring. There’s no passion whatsoever. It makes me mad.

For a booth to stand out in this show, it needs to be over the top colorful, like the award winning cut flower and shrub breeding company Kolster B.V. . They chose deep orange and bright, eggplant purple for their booth and it truly does stand out in a crowd.

Kolster also had this masterpiece created for the center of their booth. Most of the plants featured in the masterpiece were introduced by Kolster’s fine family of breeders.

In the AB-Cultivars booth, there’s lots of color too, but it comes form the fabulous new coneflowers, astilbes and campanula selections they are introducing.

Here’s a picture of Arie Blom, the breeder from AB-Cultivars and I standing with our new introduction for 2011, Echinacea ‘Southern Belle’.

Isn’t it lovely? Looks like a peony on top of a coneflower.

Arie wanted to tell you all about the two unique new selections he selected for future introduction, so we made a short video of Arie talking all about them.

I’ll have pages up for them in the next few weeks with lots more information, but I wanted my loyal readers to be the first to see them. I also added in a few things I saw that caught my eye.

I must admit I had a little technical boo-boo when uploading this video. I accidentally uploaded it to my husband’s YouTube channel. Oops! I just couldn’t bear to wait any longer to upload it again. Enjoy!

Back to the fashion show…literally. Here’s a little catwalk video to show you how it truly is a fashion show to remember. House music and all.

I also loved seeing how the floral designers used our coneflowers in their arrangements. There was a lot of Echinacea ‘Coconut Lime’ used, with and without the dangling ray petals. ‘Pink Double Delight’ also made quite an impression with the designers. It was in so many arrangements.

Awards were given to the best plants. This is a high honor and the firms who win tell the World.

Sadly, we didn’t win this year, but Kolster won two awards for their new hydrangeas. The Magical series seems to be mystifying all who see them. They are magical colors and they are touted to bloom all summer and have wonderfully tight blooms that are also favored by floral designers for wedding arrangements.

I hope you’ve had fun on your virtual visit to The World famous Plantarium. I know I’ve had fun sharing it with you.

I’ll be back in town on Wednesday night when I’ll switch gears to prepare for our favorite show of the year, the Garden Writers Symposium. I have a special pink tutu made from 60 yards or organza to wear and we’ll be serving decadent treats in the booth to celebrate the introduction of Echinacea ‘Raspberry Truffle’ and Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’.

I’m looking forward to it and to seeing many of you there.

Take care, have a great week and….

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau